Comparative symptom biochemistry between moderate and advanced heart failure.

BACKGROUND: We have a limited understanding of the biological underpinnings of symptoms in heart failure (HF). OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this paper was to compare relationships between peripheral biomarkers of HF pathogenesis and physical symptoms between patients with advanced versus moderate HF. METHODS: This was a two-stage phenotype sampling cohort study wherein we examined patients with advanced HF undergoing ventricular assist device implantation in the first stage, and then patients with moderate HF (matched adults with HF not requiring device implantation) in the second stage. Linear modeling was used to compare relationships among biomarkers and physical symptoms between cohorts. RESULTS: Worse myocardial stress, systemic inflammation and endothelial dysfunction were associated with worse physical symptoms in moderate HF (n=48), but less physical symptom burden in advanced HF (n=48). CONCLUSIONS: Where patients are in the HF trajectory needs to be taken into consideration when exploring biological underpinnings of physical HF symptoms.